I assume you will come back to us with reports on some real working devices running some real working apps. This will be exiting :)
My head has been thinking what this rascal could do for my line of interests.

Back in the late 1970s, something called a microprocessor emerged and people were calling it a computer, what rubbish, they there nothing like computers compared the mainframe we were using at the time /s
I see the Epiphany chips in the same way I saw the first 4040, 8080 or Z80 chips. Primitive perhaps by modern standards but a start. In any case if one doesn't try one will never succeed.

Don't worry so much. They hit $750K already, only around 10 hours after your article came out. Now the only thing to do would be wait, and also let others know about the opportunity to get one of these $99 boards.

I don't know about a "boon to mankind", but I do think it will be something different and cool -- I love the open source nature of the project - -and for $100 I'm sure a really big and vibrant community will grow up around it.
There have been other multicore chips in the past, but not like the Epiphany -- and the cost has been prohibitive -- now getting a Zynq and an Epiphany on the same board for $100 is mind-blowing...